God Uses a Crock Pot, Not a Microwave

I have been cooking for over 50 years. (Yes, I started early.) When crock pots came on the scene, the lids were not tight-fitting. The axiom was if you lift the lid, add another hour to the cooking time because all of the heat would escape.
It is the same with our lives. God wants to help us deal with the things that separate from us from others, even Him.

Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous,

but grievous: nevertheless

afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness

 unto them which are exercised thereby. Heb. 12:11

 

I want to get in His Presence microwave-style, push one minute and wait to hear the ding and be done.
I want the peaceable fruit of righteousness, but not the chastening. So I take the lid off, poke, prod, even remove myself from His pot, but I am not done.
He may drop an idea in my heart Too often I run with it before He has trained, formed and opened the door, I hit the shut door head on and wonder, "Where are you, God?"
He is waiting at the beginning.
Now I have to go back, add another hour or so, and learn to abide in Him. If a day is like a thousand years, what is a real hour?

John 15: 1-5 says:

1I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

2Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away:

 and every branch that beareth fruit,

he purgeth it,

that it may bring forth more fruit.

3Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

4Abide in me, and I in you.

 As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,

except it abide in the vine;

 no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

 5 I am the vine, ye are the branches:

 He that abideth in me, and I in him,

the same bringeth forth much fruit:

for without me ye can do nothing.

 

I can work at Be in Health, be a Star consultant in my Mary Kay business .or be a very good wife, mother or grandma, whatever I chose, but if I am not abiding in Him, there will be no peaceable fruit of righteousness.
If I am still, I will hear His voice, His leading.
 If I am overwhelmed, I am not abiding.
I will be stressed, not blessed.
Today I choose to crawl back in His crock pot (His everlasting arms) and abide in Him until He says I am done.

Having a Mary Kay Party is Good forYour Health

Some people think my Mary Kay business is frivolous girl time. Turns out it is good for your health. I got this email today. I do not know the author. Went to the Stanford site to try to validate it to no avail. However, I know from my "day job" that the precepts are true.
"Girlfriend Time – Who knew it was so important!
A thought to share
...a friend just finished taking an evening class at Stanford. The last lecture was on the mind-body connection--the relationship between stress and disease. The speaker (head of psychiatry at Stanford) said, among other things, that one of the best things that a man could do for his health is to be married to a woman whereas for a woman, one of the best things she could do for her health was to nurture her relationships with her girlfriends. At first everyone laughed, but he was serious.

Women connect with each other differently and provide support systems that help each other to deal with stress and difficult life experiences. Physically this quality "girlfriend time" helps us to create more seratonin--a neurotransmitter that helps combat depression and can create a general feeling of well being. Women share feelings whereas men often form relationships around activities. They rarely sit down with a buddy and talk about how they feel about certain things or how their personal lives are going. Jobs? Yes. Sports? Yes. Cars? Yes. Fishing, hunting, golf? Yes. But their feelings?--rarely. Women do it all of the time. We share from our souls with our sisters, and evidently that is very good for our health. He said that spending time with a friend is just as important to our general health as jogging or working out at a gym.

There's a tendency to think that when we are "exercising" we are doing something good for our bodies, but when we are hanging out with friends, we are wasting our time and should be more productively engaged--not true. In fact, he said that failure to create and maintain quality personal relationships with other humans is as dangerous to our physical health as smoking! So every time you hang out to shmooze with a gal pal, just pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for doing something good for your health! We are indeed very very lucky. Sooooo let's toast to our friendship with our girlfriends. Evidently it's very good for our health."
So let's get together SOON!